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Sign this PetitionICYMI: USA Today: “No Labels tells me they don’t want to be a 2024 election spoiler. It’s time to prove it.”
Rahna Epting: “They’re inconsistent. They’re unclear. The math doesn’t add up.”
Washington, D.C. – A new piece from USA Today highlights No Labels’ third-party campaign, supported by dark money and a secret nomination process that is nearly universally believed to be a spoiler effort to reelect Trump.
“They are contradicting themselves regularly,” MoveOn Political Action Executive Director Rahna Epting says in the story. “They’re inconsistent. They’re unclear. The math doesn’t add up. The facts don’t add up to what they say they intend to do. And then even at that point, they have contradicted their own intent.”
Key passages from the article are included below:
USA Today: “No Labels tells me they don’t want to be a 2024 election spoiler. It’s time to prove it.”
Critics fear the party will inadvertently—or intentionally—draw votes from Biden, helping Trump win.
By Chris Brennan
Imagine a group that looks and acts like a political party (while insisting it is not a party) with deep-pocket donors (whom the group won’t identify) holding a secret meeting with hundreds of delegates (whom the group also won’t identify) to determine the best way to have an impact on the 2024 presidential election.
That describes the meeting planned for Friday by No Labels, a self-styled centrist nonprofit that has been working on ballot access in November for a third-party presidential candidate, amid fierce criticism for a sweeping lack of transparency.
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“The reason we’re not releasing the names of the delegates is the same reason we’re not releasing the names of any of our other supporters,” [chief strategist Ryan] Clancy said. “And we’re just not going to subject them to that.”
Politics can be a rough sport. It should be played in the open. The members of any organization that keeps under wraps actions that could change the course of a presidential election should expect—and deserve—scrutiny for their efforts and criticism for their secrecy.
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Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, and U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, were also floated as potential No Labels nominees. Both passed.
[The Lincoln Project co-founder Rick] Wilson said Hogan, who had been on the board of No Labels until December, and Manchin, who is not seeking another Senate term, looked at the numbers and knew they could not win.
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Rahna Epting, executive director of MoveOn, a progressive group, said No Labels should show more transparency while “deciding on behalf of the country whether they want to run a spoiler ticket for president.”
She also expressed concerns about Jacobson’s “not in it to win it” admission and how the group found 800 delegates for a secret online meeting this week that had once been envisioned as an old-fashioned in-person political convention to see whether a ticket could win support.
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Epting said No Labels could either go “full campaign mode” after Friday’s meeting or stand down from the race. MoveOn plans to spend more than $32 million in six presidential swing states plus Ohio between now and November. Some of that will be aimed at No Labels if necessary.
That sounds like plenty of ways for No Labels to lose and no clear path to victory. The group shows no affection for Trump. But its potential voters would probably come from reluctant Biden supporters.
And every dollar MoveOn has to spend on knocking down No Labels is a dollar it could have specifically focused on defeating Trump.
Sounds like a spoiler, intentional or not.
…
I’m not sure what No Labels will decide Friday. I’m not sure No Labels knows, either. But the group’s instinct for secrecy is a sure sign we should be paying closer attention and calling for more transparency.
November’s outcome is too important to be influenced in the shadows along the margins by a group of unknown delegates whom nobody voted for, who are doing their work in some electronic meeting room we can’t enter.
Read the entire article here: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2024/03/06/2024-election-super-tuesday-third-party-no-labels-candidate/72852541007/
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